The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ebola response is facing an urgent funding shortage as the outbreak spreads across six of the country's 26 provinces and 500 new cases are reported every week.
The humanitarian response is only 48 per cent funded, and the UN has called for an additional $1.1 billion for a total aid plan costing $2.1 billion. Current resources will last only weeks, according to the UN, even as agencies expand treatment, surveillance and community response operations.
As of 8 September, national health authorities had reported more than 6,800 confirmed cases and over 3,300 deaths. The outbreak is the Democratic Republic of the Congo's largest Ebola outbreak to date, driven by the rapid accumulation of cases and its spread into new areas.
Antonio Guterres, the UN chief, said: “without additional funding, vital operations will run out of money, just when they need to expand”.
More than 2,500 volunteers and civil protection personnel are involved in the response. UN agencies and their partners have begun adding 35 mobile teams to carry out safe and dignified burials, while 286 community-based teams are being deployed in high-risk areas.
A first Ebola treatment centre has opened in Kisangani, the provincial capital of Tshopo Province. The facility has 50 beds. The World Health Organization, or WHO, has also announced that 70,000 doses of the Ebola Zaire vaccine have been allocated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The government has launched the “Congo River Without Ebola” initiative with support from the UN and its partners. It is intended to strengthen disease surveillance at priority ports and transit points.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said about $80mn had already been invested to begin five government led integrated response packages. The packages bring together the WHO, the World Food Programme, the UN children's agency UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration and other partners.
Funding needs have increased as the operation has widened. Initial three-month national plans were budgeted at $240 million. Newer government plans are costed at around $940 million, while the full integrated response plan stands at $2.1 billion.
The United States has made a major contribution, according to the response context, though international support remains insufficient to meet the appeal. The brief does not specify when the available funding will be exhausted within the weeks identified by the UN, or how the additional funds would be distributed.
Conflict continues to complicate efforts to contain the disease. Recent armed attacks in Haut-Uele and Ituri provinces have displaced civilians into Tshopo Province, where the new treatment centre has opened. The effects of that displacement on Ebola case numbers have not been specified.
The expanding operational response depends on sustained financing for teams working in communities, treatment facilities, vaccination and surveillance. Without the requested funding, the UN says vital operations risk running out of money as the outbreak continues to spread.
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